Of Proxies and Hunters Chapter 3
by Tosha Goff
Summary: Jaesy Conway; the daughter of Vincent Conway, the lead Proxy hunter, ran away from home because of her father returning home drunk and beating her. She runs into a large group of proxies, the ones her father had been killing. Whether she lives or dies all depends upon one of the proxies that was extremely injured when Jaesy first arrives.


CHAPTER 3

**He **opened my door and let me in. Once inside, he grabbed the hand that he crushed and examined it.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked, still shocked over how quickly he had changed from a relaxed person to something dangerous. He looked up at me, a bemused smile planted on his face when he saw the fear in my eyes.

"Splendorman would be pissed if you got hurt more than you already are," he explained. My face fell blank.

"Splendorman? Pissed?" I asked, earning a snicker from Ben.

"I know, hard to believe, huh? Well, it's true. But it takes a lot to get him mad, and no one wants to see him mad." He said with a shudder.

"Have you ever seen him like that?" I asked. Ben dropped my hand when he saw nothing was really wrong with it and looked up at me.

"Fuck no, nor do I want to!" He exclaimed. I nodded, falling silent. Ben slumped against the wall.

"By the way," I started, "how do you know where my room is?" I asked him. He stared at me for a moment, making me feel dumb.

"A Slender being's gotta eat to. Speaking of which," he said, quickly changing the subject, "Splendy said that you haven't ate yet. You hungry or something?"

I was silent for a moment, deciding if I was or not. Well, I haven't ate since I left home….

"Jaesy," Ben said suddenly. "Have you even ate at all since you got here?"

I shook my head, then moved to get down. Ben was immediately in front of me, keeping me on the bed. "Why are you holding me back? I wanna go eat!" I protested. He shook his head, stepping back.

"It's best if ate in here, there are others that would like to kill you right about now."

"Like Masky?"

Ben thought for a moment.

"No… he hasn't said anything about you really… oh wait that's Hoody, yeah, Masky hates you a lot."

"You to, then?" He didn't meet my gaze when I said that.

"No, I can stand you. To be honest, you don't seem that bad of a person Masky thinks you are. So no, I can tolerate you, I guess."

I smiled at his response. Ben slightly stiffened slightly. "What?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's nice knowing at least one person besides Splendorman doesn't want me dead."

Ben chuckled.

"Can I eat now?" I asked suddenly, a silent rumble coming from stomach.

"Oh, yeah. Hold on, I'll see what Splendy made. Be right back." He said, walking towards the door.

"Okay, take your time," I said to him as he left. I laid back down on the bed, waiting for Ben to return.

"Oh my God Ben, why are you feeding her?" Someone asked from outside my door. Wasn't Masky, definitely wasn't Splendorman.

"Dude, back off," I heard Ben growl. He walked in and gave me a bowl of soup. The other person walked in but stood at the doorway. His face terrified me to where I almost shook.

His raven black hair fell down to his shoulders, his skin was a pale white; he looked as though he didn't have any eyelids. It looked as though he'd burned them off since there was this black ring around his eyes and that he never blinked. His mouth scared me the most of all of him in general. Aside from the lip ring, he had a cut in smile, but though he was frowning and staring daggers at me right now, he still had that smile on his face.

He wore a white hoodie and black dress pants. Out of one of his hoodie pockets I saw a knife handle jutting out. I immediately looked over to Ben, who handed me the bowl.

"Jaesy, this is Jeff," he said, motioning towards the boy in the door. I looked back to Jeff and smiled in greeting. I took the bowl from Ben's hand, saying a quiet thank you and started nibbling. Ben's frustrated sigh caught my attention.

"She's really not that bad Jeff," he said calmly. Jeff stiffened.

"… Fine," he growled as he came and sat beside Ben, his never closing eyes on the floor. I finished up the soup, or as much as I could hold, and handed it back to Ben. He took it and left, leaving me and Jeff alone in an awkward silence.

Jeff's ice cold glare lifted from the floor and onto me.

"Maybe I shouldn't have ran away…." I mumbled to myself, keeping my own eyes on the ground.

"Did you say something?" Jeff asked me. I shrugged.

"I'm just talking to myself."

"About what?"

I sighed and looked at him with honest eyes.

"I'm starting to wish that I hadn't ran from my so called 'home' so your friend wouldn't be in her condition."

Jeff's eyes hardened.

"Please, you're just saying that so you can get on my good side like you did Ben," he said with a snarl. "You just don't wanna die's all."

"No, you're wrong," I snapped at him, "It is my fault. I was the one running away while she was out there doing her job. I'm the one that was out there being a dumbass!"

He fell silent, his glare nearly gone. He leaned back in his chair. "Damn right," he said, his voice losing the venomous tone that he had. Ben walked back in, motioning for Jeff to follow.

"Com'on bro, Slendy called for a meeting!" He said in a rush. Ben gave me a wave and left. Jeff looked towards me.

"Later Jaesy," he said before leaving me alone again.

(Ben)

Jeff hurried down the hall and to the living room. Everyone was here tonight. He hurried over and sat next to Masky, who seemed to be much calmer than what he was earlier. Slenderman cleared his throat as he stood in the middle of the room.

"I had a talk with Lord Zalgo today about our… 'guest,'" he started, earning a small growl from Masky. "I even told him what I'm about to tell you. It seems as though young Jaesy is the daughter of Vincent Conway." He finished, earning sharp and angry gasps; but not from Ben. He was confused. His eyebrows came together in thought.

"She don't seem like it, if she was then she would've said something out of hate."

Masky shook his head. "Maybe she's just pretending to be nice. I bet if Zalgo lets her live, she's gonna run home and tell us where we are." He snarled. Slenderman shook his head.

"Jaesy has no idea how she got here. She was knocked out by the explosion just like Skully, only she wasn't buried and out in the open. We had to look for Skully." He said. "Besides, wasn't aware that Vincent was a proxy hunter, let alone know what one was, but yes there is a possibility that she is lying."

"Then why would she come alone and unarmed?" Ben retorted, earning a scoff from Masky.

"Why are you standing up for her so much?" he asked, his ocean blue eyes narrowing.

"Maybe because no one else is? You're all jumping to conclusion. I say give her a chance, if she does something stupid then yeah, I say we kill her."

It was silent. Masky nodded. "Fine, but it's gonna be exactly as you said. She does something we kill her."

Slenderman cleared his throat again. "So we all agree?" He asked, looking around. No one said anything.

"Okay then, it's settled. We'll keep her until she's all healed up. If she does anything suspicious, bring her to me."

And with that, he waved everyone off. While everyone was heading on their way to wherever it was they needed to be, either sleeping or working, Ben snuck down to Jaesy's room.

"Jaesy," I heard someone whisper. When did I fall asleep?

"Jaesy." The voice said, more louder and sterner. My eyebrows furrowed in aggravation.

"Jaesy!" They hissed at me. I snapped my eyes open and looked to the person who woke me.

"Ben? What the hell are you doing?" I asked in a hushed whisper. They worried look in his eyes fully woke me. "What's wrong?"

"While you're here," he started, "don't do anything stupid, okay?"

I stared at him for a minute before chuckling. He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I can barely get up without Splendorman freaking out on me, how the hell am I supposed to do something stupid?" I said to him. He relaxed a little.

I frowned, knowing that I would have to leave when I got better, that'd mean having to go back to the town and being found. Shit.

"I really don't want to go home," I said to him. Ben looked up at me, surprised.

"Why?"

"JAESY!" I heard my Dad yell from the living room. Immediately I ducked into the closet, softly closing it so I wouldn't make a sound. Not that it would've mattered with my Dad's drunken stomping and shouting.

I slunk down in the dark closet behind the long coats.

"JAESY WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" He yelled for me, clumsily stomping to my room. I heard him crash through door and tear my room apart looking for me.

I started shaking when I heard him tromp back and stop at the closet. I felt the tears well up in my eyes. I slid them shut when Dad flung the open and fling the coats out into the hall.

I felt a man's grip on my good arm, shaking me. I gasped and looked towards him with large, frightened blue eyes. I saw my Dad sitting there. I could smell the alcohol on his breath, felt his rough and calloused hand. My breath caught in my throat as he reached a hand towards me. I pushed him away and, with a scream, ran out the door and went to find a place to hide. I found a closet a long ways from my room and slid in, not making a sound.

I slumped against the wall and hid behind the many coats. I rocked back and forth, running my good hand through my hair and closing my eyes tight. Tears kept flowing and I kept the sobs down.

I heard footsteps, lots of them. They were yelling.

"JAESY!" I heard my Dad yell. I gasped, trying my best to hold back more sobs. I heard footsteps get closer. I let a small squeak out by accident when they stopped at the door. I started rocking again, my hand gripping my head in an attempt to get rid of the sounds.

The closet door flung open and the coats ripped out of the way. I waited, rocking back and forth with my eyes closed, tears flowing down my face as I waited for Dad to get a hold of my arm and start slinging me around.

"Jaesy?" I heard someone say. I barely cracked my eyes open, looking to the man at the door. My ragged breathing and rocking made him look… I don't know. Worried? He quickly extended his arm out to me.

"Don't hurt me please Dad no more!" I yelled, sobbing. I knew it was no use, though. He didn't make a move. The tall man kindly back up.

I saw him whispering to another man, but they were both shrouded in shadows, so I couldn't see them. Finally, he slowly crawled in with me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I flinched away, closing my eyes again. More sobs escaped me, making me feel weak.

"Jaesy, it's okay," he said, that definitely wasn't my Dad. I looked back at him, relief replaced by fear. The man was not my Dad, but it was Laughing Jack. Before I could curl back up against the wall again, he wrapped both of his long, lanky arms around me.

"Shhhh, it's okay," he cooed in my ear, "he won't hurt you here. You're okay."

I can't recall how long we sat there, but after a while of him rocking me back and forth trying to calm me down, he carried me back to my room. There was a group of people surrounding the door.

"Jaesy!" I heard a familiar voice yell. They all turned and looked at us. Their expressions either went from confused to pissed or from pissed to confused then back to pissed. At the moment though I couldn't really care if they were pissed or not; Laughing Jack promised I was okay, so I trusted him.

"Jaesy, what the hell?" The voice asked again. I knew his voice to, Ben. I looked around for him and saw him walking out from the group of people. When he finally came up to us, Splendorman suddenly appeared in front of us.

"Oh my goodness! Jaesy are you okay?! You put her down right no-" He stopped when he saw I was huddled against him. Splendorman looked back up to Laughing Jack. "What happened?"

He just shook his head and carried me to my room. Once he laid me down on the bed, he covered me up and went to leave. Before he actually left I reached out and grabbed hold of his stripped sleeve.

"Yes?" He asked, looking down at me.

"Don't let him hurt me," I whimpered. Laughing Jack just smiled, telling me he would. I let him go and closed my eyes as he went to turn off the light and sat in the chair next to me.

I feel bad now. Laughing Jack really did stay up all night watching me…. Creepy but sweet: I think. He's really tired, I can see it. Poor guy's on the verge of passing out.

"Hey," I said, loud enough to snap him out of his staring contest with the floor. "Thanks, for watching over me last night."

He just smiled.

"You didn't have to, you know."

"Oh yes I did," he said sternly, his smile immediately disappearing. "Something happened, huh?"

I sighed, looking down and nodding. It was silent for a while before he nodded.

"I'm not gonna pry," was all he said, patting my shoulder. I smiled at him, telling him to go home and sleep. "Later Jaesy."

"Bye Laughing Jack."

"Call me Jack," he said, poking my nose. I giggled a little. I went to look at him, but Jack had already left. Alone again, it seems. I guess it's not new, it's sad that I've already gotten used to it. Just like at home. I got bored, so I went to stand, hesitating as I raised my back away from the bed. This is one of the things I hate about being five foot two. When I was sure that my back wasn't gonna be able to touch the bed, I went to the door.

Outside my room once again. And on my own. I know this is gonna end bad. I walked on down the hallway, taking in everything around me so I wouldn't get lost again. I reached a door that was barely ajar.

"Excuse me," a woman's voice called out from the room. I stopped, looking towards the door. "Come in here please. I'm bored."

I hesitated, not sure whether I should go in or not.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just bored."

Going against my better judgment I walked in. The room was actually really nice. Not too light, not too dark, just the right shade of blue. The floors were a fluffy white carpet that felt really nice on my feet. There were a couple of band posters on the walls, some torn and some looking as though they were new.

It was clean in here. The dresser and chest had no dust on them and there wasn't a dirt stain or anything like that on the floor. There was no clutter, nothing out of place.

The bed sheets were a pretty shade of purple. I barely noticed the shape of a person lying under them. I looked up to their face with surprise. She had a small, thin face with Bambi like, muddy brown eyes. Her blonde hair was frizzed up and hung down a certain side of her face. As much as I could see, it went past her shoulders.

She was pale and looked tired. She had bruises and cuts all over her. Something bad must have happened. She had freckles, three on each cheek, forming a triangle-like shape. She smiled at me and motioned me over. I walked over to her bedside.

"Pull up that chair and talk with me," she cheered. Despite her hollowed features, she was hyper. I did as she asked and sat there, my broken arm making me wobbly. The woman smiled at me.

"Wow, you're prettier up close!" She said, reaching out and taking a small strand of my hair and looking at it. "Is this your natural color?"

"Yes."

"It's so pretty and shiny," she mused. I was dumbfounded.

"Up close? You know me?" I asked her. She just chuckled.

"Yeah, and I'm so sorry about your arm. I hope you can forgive me for that."

"For what?"

"For setting that bomb there, duh."

"Wait, the bomb?"

"Yes," She hesitated, looking uneasy. "By the way, my name's Skully."


End file.
